Guelph, Ontario – My Top 7 Picks

Guelph, known as “The Royal City, is located 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of downtown Toronto at the intersection of Highways 6 and 7. Guelph was founded on St. George’s Day, April 23, 1827, the feast day of the patron saint of England. The town was named to honor Britain’s royal family, the Hanoverians who were descended from the Guelfs, the ancestral family of George IV, the reigning British monarch.

John Galt designed the town to resemble a European city center with squares, broad main streets and narrow side streets, resulting in a variety of block sizes and shapes. The street plan was designed to resemble a lady’s fan with many of the streets forming triangles (the segments of the fan).

The first cable TV system began in Guelph with their first broadcast being the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The Speed and Eramosa Rivers flow through the city.

Riverside Park is an 80-acre park built around a portion of the Speed River that runs through Guelph. The park opened in 1905.

The Ontario Agricultural College, the oldest part of the University of Guelph, began in 1873 as an associate agricultural college of the University of Toronto. The Government of Ontario purchased 550 acres of land from F. W. Stone to build the college. In 1964, the Ontario Agricultural College, Ontario Veterinary College and Macdonald Institute combined to become the University of Guelph and Wellington College.

Guelph City Hall, 1 Carden Street, was built in 1857 using locally quarried Lockport Dolomite, and was fashioned in the Renaissance Revival style. When the building opened in 1857, Guelph had 4,500 residents. Pediment, cornice brackets, corner quoins – Guelph Book 1

The building was constructed about 1867 of limestone from local quarries, and its structure is supported from the basement by 18-inch timbers. During the late nineteenth century, The Albion Hotel, along with twenty other hotels in the area, served the needs of farmers coming into town for the weekly market and the Provincial Fair in front of City Hall. – Guelph Book 1